Find out what other moms-to-be are asking. Join in the discussion with Henci Goer, whose expertise is determining what the research tells us best promotes safe, healthy birth. If you would like to contact Henci outside of the Ask Henci forum, send an email to Goersitemail@aol.com.

She is expecting her second baby in June and with her first son
she had a 12 hour labour with an assisted forcep birth (because he
was 9 14) and the result of this was a 4th degree tear. She was
told by her pervious OB to have a c-section to aviod further damage
to her pelvic floor but she chose to go with a Midwife and they
have decided to try a natural birth and if it looks like she is
going to tear again badly they will do a c-section...Our question
is: I've seen information that says c-sections don't prevent damage
to the pelvic floor, so would she be better off not having a
c-section as an option at all or in her case does it offer some
protection since there was a lot of damage the first time. Her
pregnancies are also very close together the boys will be 14 months
apart.

I may be wrong, but I think that the previous OB was concerned
not about damage to the pelvic floor but about another anal
sphincter tear. (A 4th-degree tear is a tear completely through the
anal sphincter muscle.) I have already written about the likelihood
of a repeat anal sphincter tear on this forum. You can find the
thread here.
Please get back to me if reading through this thread doesn't answer
your question.

~ Henci

All Times America/New_York

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